Peter Hirshberg

Peter Hirshberg is at the epicenter of the noisy, connected world of online conversation. He is changing our thinking about big data, marketing, branding and customer relationships. A Silicon Valley executive with several high profile marketing and branding related ventures, Peter has led emerging media and technology companies at the center of disruptive change for more than 20 years.

Peter's most recent research is focused on the impact and potential big data has on organizations and societies today. He is engaged with groups on every level including the United Nations General Assembly and the government of Singapore on how data can effect change within societies, and with marketing organizations, such as WPP Millward Brown, to understand data's application to business. In addition, he's partnering with technology brands, such as Nokia and Telefonica, to better understand how devices and data provide opportunities, insights and new classes of problems to work through. Using amazing visuals, Peter popularizes and brings data to life in his presentations.

He is a Co-Founder of The Re:imagine Group, a fast growing agency helping brands with strategy and marketing in a world of empowered and connected audiences and customers. He's worked with executive teams at Best Buy, Sony, IBM, Verizon, Estee Lauder, Syfy and many others on digital and growth strategies. Peter is also Chairman of the board of advisers of Technorati, the largest social media ad network with an audience of over 108 million unique visitors a month on over 400 professionally run sites with over a billion monthly page views.

Hirshberg is a board member of ActiveVideo Networks and serves on the advisory boards of Ideeli and GlamMedia. He is a Trustee of The Computer History Museum and a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute. Since 2009 he's been an advisor at the MIT Sensable Cities Lab and a Senior Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy

Hirshberg is also Co-Founder of San Francisco's Grey Area Foundation for the Arts, whose gallery space, studios and programs bring together artists, developers, the tech community and the public to explore digital culture. Guided by the principles of openness, collaboration, and resource sharing, GAFFTA promotes creativity at the intersection of art, design, sound, and technology.

Previously Hirshberg served as president and CEO of Gloss.com, the online prestige beauty etailer co-owned by Estee Lauder Companies, Chanel and Clarins. He was founder and CEO of Elemental Software (sold to Macromedia in 1999).

During a nine-year tenure at Apple Computer, Hirshberg headed Enterprise Marketing, where he grew Apple's large business and government revenue to $1 billion annually and helped lead the company's entry into the online service arena. After leaving Apple, Hirshberg's new-media strategy firm served clients including America Online, Microsoft, NBC Television Network, Estee Lauder, Pacific Bell and Silicon Graphics.

Peter Hirshberg earned his bachelor's degree at Dartmouth College and his MBA at Wharton.